The Borrowing Policy.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 297, 11 May 1889, Page 2

The Borrowing Policy.

The Party of Ecanomy has, it seems, scored another success. On the authority of a financial newspaper, the Pafty fa pronounced to have placed the balance of trade on th* right side. After a full and careful examination of the state of trade, the Banking and Insurance Record has dsolared that ths osssation of borrowing in New Zealand has sent up the export* to a considerable excess, over the import*. The non-borrowing policy, at all events, is represented >s one of the elements of that great success. The state o t our trade ia undoubtedly very satisfactory, We rejoice in it, just as other people rejoice. We are as pleased as anybody that fa the comparison of Australasian statistics, our trade returns make such a superior anoe. But we do not see any reason to neot the non-borrowing policy with the ” matter fa any shape or form. For the simple reason that the non-borrowing policy still remain* In the oonditlonlof a good resolution. At the fast general elections there was much virtuous talking and writing about borrowlug. According to the economical school, there was to bs no mor* of the accursed thing at any prioe. Ruin and desolation wore ■taring us fa the face. We had been brought to tha lowest state of depression by a reckless finance of nearly twenty year*. The only remedy wa* to stop borrowing from that moment. The ceseatiou of borrowlog wa* the greatest plank in the platform nt the Parly which came out of the elections uppermost. But, though the Party won its victory, borrowing did not cease. There came a Premier who represented that borrowing must go on. He te a masterful Premier, and accustomed to have hi* way. He had hi* way, and he borrowed ; borrowed largely ; more largely at a single draft than hi* predecessor, The party of non-borrowers was not put out fa the least. It explained that the bo: rowing was not really borrowing, because somebody else was responsible for it. The poor Premier's hand had been forced, He really oould not help himself, Into the merits of all this it is bootless to enter, The fact remains that borrowing wa* not stopped by any means. In addition we have the fact that the interest payments thi* year are heavier than they ever were before, Nevertheless the exports have exceeded the imports largely. But as the values of export* are thing* which are not governed by th# firm determination of politioiaue to Stop borrowing at some future time, we must seek some other explanation for their increase. Ths increased value* are simply the result of better prioM of produce. All the quotations from all the financial journals of opinion* formed after the most careful examination of all the facte will not alter the fact. The quotations may be valuable m supporters of a fixed idea. But that doM not prevent them from being equally wrong. ■ Ths parade made of th* quotations Is simply an attempt to give the Party of Economy credit for the rise in prices.—Lyttelton Times.